As noble as these statements were, the devil is always in the detail. For too long sport has been used as a political football, where politicians have used their perverse ideology to humiliate sports federations and national sports teams.
The Portfolio Committee on Sport and Recreation needs to build a united policy that advances national unity and pride. This committee, chairpersons and deputy chairpersons have in the past been guilty of issuing insults and threats to our sports federations, teams and players, which makes us the laughing stock of the world, demoralises our teams and players and causes division in our country in stead of unity. We have winning teams and should be proud of their achievements. They must ensure that in future this doesn't happen again, as players feel disenfranchised from their own country when they are attacked.
Leadership requires that we build upon our achievements, make improvements where we are weak, which in turn will achieve the President's stated goal for national unity as well as the goal of the Congress of the People.
Hon Minister, we are fully behind transformation in sport. In the past 15 years several different approaches have been used to address this issue, none of which have been particularly successful. We, the Congress of the People, believe that the time has come for a new and comprehensive approach to unlock our sports talent in the country which has been severely neglected over the past several years. [Interjections.]